An Elusive Red Figure
9 June – 16 September 2023
Zurich, Limmatstrasse
Known for conceptually oriented work in diverse media, Roni Horn continues her exploration of identity and difference with the exhibition ‘An Elusive Red Figure...,’ on view at our Zurich, Limmatstrasse gallery.
Opening this June during Zurich Art Weekend, Horn presents a new work titled: ‘An elusive Red Figure darting about in the Venetian darkness; a red dwarf burning out beyond Saturn; a nasty gang of runts in red snowsuits acting out in a North American suburb; an attractive young Italian woman dressed in red is stalked by a lesbian serial killer; a village girl, the prettiest you can imagine, in a red velvet hood cut from the belly of a sleeping wolf ....’ (2022).
‘An Elusive Red Figure...’ is a suite of 33 paired ink jet prints, presented across the second-floor gallery space. Following on from the 2021 work ‘LOG (March 22, 2019 – May 17, 2020)’, ‘An Elusive Red Figure...’ is a collection of outtakes from ‘LOG’ as well as original drawings, including quotations, collages, photographs, casual commentaries, notes on news and weather events and original texts by Horn.
‘LOG,’ which debuted at Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street in 2021, is a large-scale installation comprised of 406 individual works on paper. The work was the result of a daily commitment to drawing undertaken by Horn over a period of fourteen months. Drawing has been a defining element of Horn’s artistic practice since the 1980s and ‘An Elusive Red Figure…’ is emblematic of Horn’s relationship with the medium, which she has described as ‘a kind of breathing activity on a daily level.’ Whilst creating the drawings on paper that would become the paired ink jet prints for ‘An Elusive Red Figure…,’ Horn would describe the events of weather, private life and anything notable that came to mind or hand at the time.
‘Unlike many of my other installations and drawings, I’m not trying to make a big gesture. I like the solitary, daily work.’—Roni Horn
Interview with Philipp Hindahl in Monopol, June 2023 issue
One set of prints notes the temperature during a trip that the artist took to Zurich in July in 2019, others feature photographs of the artist, or cultural figures such as Aretha Franklin or Elizabeth Taylor, pasted alongside drawings or notations. Another page colored bright yellow is inscribed with the line ‘I am paralyzed with hope’ from a monologue by the stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, which Horn describes as a ‘poignant connection to our time with regards to politics and the environment and now, of course, in relation to the pandemic.’
Her preoccupation with language permeates the works; scattered words read as a stream of consciousness spiralling across the paper. ‘I’m not telling you what I’m doing every day,’ says Horn, ‘but when you add all of these bits together, you get my sensibility.’ These intricate works on paper extend Horn’s masterful use of mirroring and textual play to explore the materiality of color and the sculptural potential of drawing.
‘Formative elements are paradox and ambiguity. That is the basis for pairing and doubling in a lot of my work.’—Roni Horn
Interview with Philipp Hindahl in Monopol, June 2023 issue
‘LOG (March 22, 2019 – May 17, 2020)’ is on view at a major exhibition titled ‘Roni Horn: I am paralyzed with hope’ at Centro Botín in Santander, coinciding with the artist’s presentation in Zurich.
Concurrently, a major show is on view at HE Art Museum in Shunde, China, titled ‘Roni Horn: A dream dreamt in a dreaming world is not really a dream, ... but a dream not dreamt is.’.
The gallery is open Tue – Fri, 11 am – 6 pm and Sat, 11 am – 5 pm. For special opening hours during Zurich Art Weekend and Art Basel, please visit our location page.
La obra de Roni Horn se caracteriza por la incertidumbre y la imposibilidad de concluirla. En toda su obra es importante su interés por la naturaleza mutable de la identidad, el significado y la percepción, así como la noción de duplicidad, cuestiones que siguen impulsando la práctica de Horn.
On view now through 16 September 2023 at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse.
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